Why Did Ares Fail?

Darkk, what do you mean he had no idea people would use it?

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Help save Ares, write a plugin!

Well letsee...

- Multiplayer was not all it could have been. 4 players with balanced races would have been sweet. Actually I'm really suprised the races were never balanced for multiplayer. One of the few things that really dissapointed me about Ares. (enough to even implement my own balanced races in a plug... that was never released...)
- With the above one, after the single player scenarios, there wasn't much to do
- Hera came way too late, and just wasnt what it could have been.

I feel bad critizing such an old game when I am using newer games as comparison, so I'm going to stop now.

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_The leaves rustling.
When is the last time you heard
that in a city.
_

I disagree. I believe that Ares was hugely successful in its day. I remember back when the user base was tremendously large, there were weekly organized online tournaments and plenty of new people all the time. This lasted for over 2 years! For a game of an older OS, this is a tremendous accomplishment. When Hera came out there was a brief deluge of new plugs and scenarios that were very innovative and fun to play.

What it comes down to is that all good things must come to an end. Ares was a very good thing, and lasted long in its prime.

Of course, EV* is a little bit of a high bar to set as far as success goes. I don't think that ANY shareware game anywhere comes even remotely close to rivaling the success of EV*. Ares was at the top of the pile though, that's for sure.

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"That was quick."
"Well you know, when you don't do it right it doesn't take as long."

Funny, but I don't think of Ares as being that old,
but then I suppose it is in relative terms.
It doesn't seem old to me because I play it a lot. And there are still talented newbies appearing on GR. It's not dead yet.

It is a seriously good shareware game as are all of Ambrosia's offerings 😄

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Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

No, but it's dying. Then again, considering that Ambrosia didn't even pick up the game until '99, it's actually quite a long-lived game.

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"I'm one of those things you'll save forever / but never read / like an old newspaper / no one has time to read
This child has grown into a dead end / since I lost the power to pretend
But it's all right, that's who I am inside
Not much to say, on this non-toxic, ordinary day" -SR-17, "Non-Toxic" ( now you see inside )

Well it's still hanging in there....

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Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

Ares most assuredly did NOT fail.

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look! its a signature!

Yeah, we're the proof of that! 😄

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Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

Well, compared to what Ares should have become, it failed. Actually, it's not Ares's fault. It's the incompetent folks on the human end that didn't see how utterly amazing it is and went off to play EV that failed.

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"Humans are hicks."
- Paff's Law
It explains so much...

I dunno. I think that EV was something of a fluke. I doubt we'll ever see something like that again. The sheer popularity of it is unparalleled by any other shareware game. Any imitations will be labled cheap knockoffs and won't recieve nearly as much a following.

It's not really fair to compare Ares to EV.

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"That was quick."
"Well you know, when you don't do it right it doesn't take as long."

EV was a terrific game - together, the 3 EV games have consumed more of my life than any other game. In fact, possibly even all other games combined. It's definitely significantly more than Final Fantasy X, which consumed 300 hours (must... level... up...).

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"In literature as in love we are astounded by what is chosen by others." Andre Maurois
Onii7/Frinkruds and his funky forums
macgamer.net

Quote

Originally posted by Fleet Admiral Darkk:
**EV was a terrific game - together, the 3 EV games have consumed more of my life than any other game. In fact, possibly even all other games combined. It's definitely significantly more than Final Fantasy X, which consumed 300 hours (must... level... up...).

**

I must say EV has taken up a considerable amount of my lifetime too...EV had me occupied for about 5 years, EVO about 2 (overlaps EV), EVN, waiting for Windows version b/c my Mac died and it was too old anyway. Ares wasn't too bad, I'd say it lasted about a year, and I might go back to it with some of the nice plug-ins out there. My skills are kinda rusty though.

All of these games have in-game (i.e. gameplay) and out-of-game (i.e. plug-ins) depth and expandability (not necessarily physical, but figurative too), contributing to their incredible longevity. Other games just can't compare.

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Mike Lee (Firebird)
Visit Cymltaneous Solutions: (url="http://"http://cs.paching.com/")http://cs.paching.com/(/url)
(hosted by (url="http://"http://www.evula.org")evula.org(/url))

I'm old school gamer. I'm still playing Quake 1 and have been ever since it was released. I still ain't bored with that game even though 5 years later I'm into Team Fortress. Anyway Ares... well I am one of those people that gave up on Ares. not because it isn't a great game. Its just because I outgrew it sort to speak. In a few years when I get bored of some other oldschool game I play I'll comeback to Ares and start making plugins. I was kinda steemed that everything wasn't balanced enough so I tried to implement a plugin where you get a balance of all the different Races. And you choose which side ya want. Did that ever fail. next time I do make a plugin like that which will probably never happen I would make it more even.

(EDIT) Some of you might remember me. My former name was Capt_Ginew and I change my name alot on Gameranger. my usual names are Wing Zero.ca, Shekky_ca, and Epyon_ca (Gundam Wing Fan Yes) anyway I remember some of yall and some from hyperiums too.
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(This message has been edited by Shekky_ca (edited 05-10-2003).)

We'll recognise you by the suffix _ca on your ID...
.
I got bored with EV before its initial 30 days were up!
Quake though, I play a lot. It's cool.

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Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...